Post by Gwalchmai on May 1, 2007 18:59:02 GMT -5
Ok, so I've finally giving this writing thing a crack. This is basically the first chapter so please let me know what you think, good and bad. Also, the main character's name is Arthur James (family names acctually =P). Enjoy.
**
Falling asleep is the greatest comfort in the world. Everything is about you and nothing the world can do can take that away. It walks its way back into non-existence and you enter an experience all your own. It’s a special time for you, and like anything special in this world, the nose of science is thrust in to answer questions no one really cares about.
But why?
What do I care if I dream of a gumdrop monsoon with alligators chasing me up a mountain because I said the word music. What mattered was the sense of joy I felt at reaching he top and giving a lion’s roar of acclaim for saving the world from robots and then waking, refreshed to meet a new day.
I don’t need to look to my dreams to find some hidden part of myself, I can do that just fine on my own by always giving the truth to myself and judging my reactions from that. Granted, there are a few more tears that way but it pays off in the end, at least for me it did.
I’m sorry but there’s so much on the subject I just don’t understand. If your subconscious was trying to tell you to dump a girl, why is it you don’t dream of yourself looking in a mirror saying, “Sorry but the magic is gone and so is the love.” Instead you get a duck floating down a stream while playing the tuba.
So either, our subconscious lacks the ability to establish a sensible direct thought so is forced to speak in a distorted mess OR it’s all just gibberish. For some reason, the later comforts me more than the idea of trusting in illiterate babble. Who needs science when you can just trust yourself?
Well, right now, I kind of wished that I’d paid more attention to the science part.
**
Time to take inventory here.
I was at the bank dealing with some business when all of a sudden there was a scream.
Very loud and very clear.
It seemed to just reverberate throughout the room tingling the fingertips. Everyone freezes in silence as one straining with their senses to find the cause of the scream. Right away I spot a short middle aged woman sporting a red dress that at one time must have been very flattering on her.
I think she had black hair.
Too long it took for me to notice her pointing finger toward a dark figure in a trench coat.
Who wears a trench coat on record-breaking heat wave?
Then everything’s moving far to quickly. First the papers fly only to be passed by larger objects like pens or books or backpacks and then preceded by people. The light and the noise were too great for any mortal to bear but somehow my mind survived the toll.
The smoke kicked up is a sweet release for my eyes but the screams don’t help my ears and my nose was in agony.
All of a sudden, I was very tired and I just wanted to sleep. So I take one last deep breathe and roll my head over to be more comfortable as I drift into oblivion. Maybe that’s where I would have ended up if I hadn’t seen that dress.
My eyes saw a flash of red and I knew now was not the time so I began the battle to reawaken into the waiting chaos of our world.
I must say waking up this time was quite different than usual.
Generally you’re feelings slowly return in a haze and after a while you’re back to normal but instead my perception sharpened and my senses left completely.
That’s when I truly saw the whole terrible disaster.
I cried.
Viewing the carnage was just terrible. Men and women just lying over and under the rubble with bodies twisted in pain, but none more so than the woman in red, now true to my impromptu name.
What could she have done to deserve that kind of punishment dealt out by that dark stranger?
In that moment I became a being of pure rage. What monster could do this to innocent people! What beast of hate could be driven to do this!? I could imagine nothing more satisfying than wringing his neck with my two strong hands of justice and retribution!
Then I saw the doll.
The rage just faded back into the nothingness it came from and a great well of tears consumed me.
The first tear was the hardest but like anything else, the second is always easier. I just couldn’t stop them from coming. It seemed like I rained an ocean of tears before my soul could finally let go and move on.
I just felt empty, a hollow shell of what I was and as the paramedics arrived I just drifted away on a soft breeze to what one could only hope was a better place.
Slowly the breeze picked till it was a torrent of fury blasting my off into space while I just looked on dispassionately at the world spinning by.
I guess I died not that it really mattered so long as I didn’t have to stay there. I guess it was time to finally put it to the test and see who was right and who to hate for continuing the bloodshed of human existence.
By now I was falling out of the clouds and into an eternal night of space. Where would it end?
Soon the earth became just a dot closely followed by the sun as I was sucked into oblivion. Faster and faster I moved, the stars becoming a soft glow in the distance which for some stupid reason reminded me of driving alone on those lonely nights between home and the city. For a half second I wondered why the radio wasn’t working only to shake my head in utter embarrassment.
Nice Art, only a couple minutes in space and you’re already going
crazy.
But the trip goes on. I really don’t know how long it went but I hoped it’d never end.
Space was just so beautiful with an unimaginable state of grace and being. The only close comparison I can make to it is flying. If you’ve ever had the chance to, you know what I mean. Just floating above those clouds in a sea of light radiating everywhere and an endless sky… A sky so great you can’t help but wonder how it holds itself up and to keep from crushing our small homes and tiny ambitions.
The only real difference between space and flying high is the lack of a bottom. Nothing to bring you down, just the bliss of endlessness and new beginnings.
Of course, just when I reach utter bliss and happiness, I get a sun shoved in my face as a glaring reminder of how small I am.
Zooming past that red visage of spite I went tumbling toward a planet of red seas and pale green forests. I don’t know what was going on but I sure hoped those indigo clouds would cushion the fall.
They didn’t.
I hit the earth with a resounding BOOM and once more I discovered what it was to have pain again.
I can tell you right now, that is the worst gift I have ever been given and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone… that I knew anyway. You never know, some people might deserve it.
I felt my body being weighed down with life again and of course that ever-loving pain I was mentioning earlier. It was just growing and growing and wouldn’t stop.
Oh if there was a Lord in heaven I pleaded for some release but instead it just redoubled and I found myself writhing in agony.
I finally went to scream and instead found myself gasping at air. Oh that sweet blessed air! Never was there anything that could match your magic powers of rejuvenation. With every lung full, some bit of pain would ebb its way out of my body, first my head and then my chest.
A few moments more and my arms were free from its tyranny quickly followed by my legs. My feet and hands took a little bit longer but soon they too were released.
Well, now I finally had a chance to view my surroundings.
I was on my back staring up at a reddish sky with clouds of violet slowly sailing by in what seemed to be a clearing. The ground was covered with a pale yellow-green moss. It reminded me a bit of Spanish moss but not as “full” I guess and each strand as soft as a blade of grass.
All in all, it made a very soft and cushy bed.
Pushing myself up to get a better view, I rose a titan. A very odd sensation to have considering I was hardly the ideal male specimen.
Ignoring the odd sensation for the moment, I scanned the area. It appeared I was in a small hilly knoll in the middle of a huge forest.
The trees were more like overgrown bushes with gnarly trunks and clustered leaves. The leaves where of the same yellow-green but a bit darker and vibrant from the surrounding moss.
Quite the mess I’d gotten into here.
So now comes the question, what does a man do who has just traveled through death and space in a $2000 dollar suit and dropped not only on an alien planet, but in the middle of the forest do?
Man, why is it I always get the difficult questions!
**
Falling asleep is the greatest comfort in the world. Everything is about you and nothing the world can do can take that away. It walks its way back into non-existence and you enter an experience all your own. It’s a special time for you, and like anything special in this world, the nose of science is thrust in to answer questions no one really cares about.
But why?
What do I care if I dream of a gumdrop monsoon with alligators chasing me up a mountain because I said the word music. What mattered was the sense of joy I felt at reaching he top and giving a lion’s roar of acclaim for saving the world from robots and then waking, refreshed to meet a new day.
I don’t need to look to my dreams to find some hidden part of myself, I can do that just fine on my own by always giving the truth to myself and judging my reactions from that. Granted, there are a few more tears that way but it pays off in the end, at least for me it did.
I’m sorry but there’s so much on the subject I just don’t understand. If your subconscious was trying to tell you to dump a girl, why is it you don’t dream of yourself looking in a mirror saying, “Sorry but the magic is gone and so is the love.” Instead you get a duck floating down a stream while playing the tuba.
So either, our subconscious lacks the ability to establish a sensible direct thought so is forced to speak in a distorted mess OR it’s all just gibberish. For some reason, the later comforts me more than the idea of trusting in illiterate babble. Who needs science when you can just trust yourself?
Well, right now, I kind of wished that I’d paid more attention to the science part.
**
Time to take inventory here.
I was at the bank dealing with some business when all of a sudden there was a scream.
Very loud and very clear.
It seemed to just reverberate throughout the room tingling the fingertips. Everyone freezes in silence as one straining with their senses to find the cause of the scream. Right away I spot a short middle aged woman sporting a red dress that at one time must have been very flattering on her.
I think she had black hair.
Too long it took for me to notice her pointing finger toward a dark figure in a trench coat.
Who wears a trench coat on record-breaking heat wave?
Then everything’s moving far to quickly. First the papers fly only to be passed by larger objects like pens or books or backpacks and then preceded by people. The light and the noise were too great for any mortal to bear but somehow my mind survived the toll.
The smoke kicked up is a sweet release for my eyes but the screams don’t help my ears and my nose was in agony.
All of a sudden, I was very tired and I just wanted to sleep. So I take one last deep breathe and roll my head over to be more comfortable as I drift into oblivion. Maybe that’s where I would have ended up if I hadn’t seen that dress.
My eyes saw a flash of red and I knew now was not the time so I began the battle to reawaken into the waiting chaos of our world.
I must say waking up this time was quite different than usual.
Generally you’re feelings slowly return in a haze and after a while you’re back to normal but instead my perception sharpened and my senses left completely.
That’s when I truly saw the whole terrible disaster.
I cried.
Viewing the carnage was just terrible. Men and women just lying over and under the rubble with bodies twisted in pain, but none more so than the woman in red, now true to my impromptu name.
What could she have done to deserve that kind of punishment dealt out by that dark stranger?
In that moment I became a being of pure rage. What monster could do this to innocent people! What beast of hate could be driven to do this!? I could imagine nothing more satisfying than wringing his neck with my two strong hands of justice and retribution!
Then I saw the doll.
The rage just faded back into the nothingness it came from and a great well of tears consumed me.
The first tear was the hardest but like anything else, the second is always easier. I just couldn’t stop them from coming. It seemed like I rained an ocean of tears before my soul could finally let go and move on.
I just felt empty, a hollow shell of what I was and as the paramedics arrived I just drifted away on a soft breeze to what one could only hope was a better place.
Slowly the breeze picked till it was a torrent of fury blasting my off into space while I just looked on dispassionately at the world spinning by.
I guess I died not that it really mattered so long as I didn’t have to stay there. I guess it was time to finally put it to the test and see who was right and who to hate for continuing the bloodshed of human existence.
By now I was falling out of the clouds and into an eternal night of space. Where would it end?
Soon the earth became just a dot closely followed by the sun as I was sucked into oblivion. Faster and faster I moved, the stars becoming a soft glow in the distance which for some stupid reason reminded me of driving alone on those lonely nights between home and the city. For a half second I wondered why the radio wasn’t working only to shake my head in utter embarrassment.
Nice Art, only a couple minutes in space and you’re already going
crazy.
But the trip goes on. I really don’t know how long it went but I hoped it’d never end.
Space was just so beautiful with an unimaginable state of grace and being. The only close comparison I can make to it is flying. If you’ve ever had the chance to, you know what I mean. Just floating above those clouds in a sea of light radiating everywhere and an endless sky… A sky so great you can’t help but wonder how it holds itself up and to keep from crushing our small homes and tiny ambitions.
The only real difference between space and flying high is the lack of a bottom. Nothing to bring you down, just the bliss of endlessness and new beginnings.
Of course, just when I reach utter bliss and happiness, I get a sun shoved in my face as a glaring reminder of how small I am.
Zooming past that red visage of spite I went tumbling toward a planet of red seas and pale green forests. I don’t know what was going on but I sure hoped those indigo clouds would cushion the fall.
They didn’t.
I hit the earth with a resounding BOOM and once more I discovered what it was to have pain again.
I can tell you right now, that is the worst gift I have ever been given and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone… that I knew anyway. You never know, some people might deserve it.
I felt my body being weighed down with life again and of course that ever-loving pain I was mentioning earlier. It was just growing and growing and wouldn’t stop.
Oh if there was a Lord in heaven I pleaded for some release but instead it just redoubled and I found myself writhing in agony.
I finally went to scream and instead found myself gasping at air. Oh that sweet blessed air! Never was there anything that could match your magic powers of rejuvenation. With every lung full, some bit of pain would ebb its way out of my body, first my head and then my chest.
A few moments more and my arms were free from its tyranny quickly followed by my legs. My feet and hands took a little bit longer but soon they too were released.
Well, now I finally had a chance to view my surroundings.
I was on my back staring up at a reddish sky with clouds of violet slowly sailing by in what seemed to be a clearing. The ground was covered with a pale yellow-green moss. It reminded me a bit of Spanish moss but not as “full” I guess and each strand as soft as a blade of grass.
All in all, it made a very soft and cushy bed.
Pushing myself up to get a better view, I rose a titan. A very odd sensation to have considering I was hardly the ideal male specimen.
Ignoring the odd sensation for the moment, I scanned the area. It appeared I was in a small hilly knoll in the middle of a huge forest.
The trees were more like overgrown bushes with gnarly trunks and clustered leaves. The leaves where of the same yellow-green but a bit darker and vibrant from the surrounding moss.
Quite the mess I’d gotten into here.
So now comes the question, what does a man do who has just traveled through death and space in a $2000 dollar suit and dropped not only on an alien planet, but in the middle of the forest do?
Man, why is it I always get the difficult questions!
